Description

Aero just got faster.

Regardless of if you're tearing Kona to pieces or bridging the gap to the breakaway, Zipp's 404 Firecrest Carbon Clincher Road Wheelset will heighten your top end, and deliver an unparalleled versatility in ride quality. And for the latest iteration of the 404, Zipp's refined 188/V9 rear hub and more efficient spoke lacing pattern have been employed.

The 404 is one Zipp's most ambitious rim shapes. Designed to bridge the gap between tubulars and clinchers, the 404 Firecrest maintains a rim depth of 58mm and an aerodynamic brake track width of 24.73mm. The Zipp 88/188 hubs' bearing stance has been widened by 7.5mm, and the rim's body shape has been canted out by two percent. Zipp found that the design creates a more stable structure, and it provides greater vertical and lateral compliance with increased control, comfort, and rigidity. While the 404 benefits from these welcomed additions, to achieve the Zipp-standard of strength and rigidity, the 404 utilizes unidirectional fibers to handle the tensile and comprehensive loading within the rim, and woven fibers in the spoke-hole areas. A woven silica-ceramic fabric and a woven carbon fabric encapsulate the braking and tire-mounting surfaces. The combination of fiber patterns creates a high stiffness-to-weight ratio without stacking up the grams.

A number of Zipp technologies went into making the 404 the one of the most versatile wheels in the Zipp arsenal. First, the Multi-Material Co-Molding process permanently fuses a sub-200-gram aluminum hoop to a dimpled carbon structure that acts as a leaf spring for road vibration and impact. Spokes laced directly to the carbon body give you the benefit of a carbon feel and aluminum braking. Next, visco-elastic material is inserted between carbon laminate in the rim to reduce road vibration by ten percent. Lastly, the dimples of the Aerodynamic Boundary Layer Control (ABLC) on the curved rim section work to create a slight turbulence directly above the rim surface. This creates an artificial boundary layer that forces the laminar boundary layer towards the forward part of the rim to become turbulent. This process enables airflow to remain attached over more of the rim for a longer period of time, providing a lower level of integrated drag. The drag that ABLC creates is called skin friction drag; although it's greatly increased, pressure drag (which is ten times higher than skin friction) is decreased to make the 404 wheels faster than the competition in a wide range of conditions, not just the wind tunnel. While most wheels only enjoy minimum drag at rarely occurring yaw angles of five and ten degrees, the 404 experiences it at the real-world conditions of 10 to 20 degrees.

For the build, Zipp used its proprietary 88 hub on the front and the new 188/V9 on the rear. This new hub design reports a claimed 25% increase in torsional rigidity, and it's also stiffer laterally than the last iteration of the 188. Additionally, it features larger Swiss Steel bearings that distribute load more evenly across the axle. And lastly, the hub's new lacing design allows for what Zipp calls its "virtual three-cross" lacing pattern, which delivers three-cross durability with a two-cross build. The wheels receive an 18/24 Sapim X-Ray spoke configuration, and to minimize mechanical drag, each hub rolls on Swiss Steel bearings.

The Zipp 404 Firecrest Carbon Clincher Road Wheelset is available in the color Black with either Black or White labels. The rear wheel is available with either a Shimano/SRAM or Campagnolo 11-speed compatible freehub body. Each wheel includes a Zipp steel skewer, alloy valve extender, rim strip, and Zipp Tangente cork brake pads.

Please note that Zipp's Tangente Platinum Pro and cork brake pads are designed specifically for use with its carbon clinchers. Zipp also recommends a maximum rider weight of 250lb for these wheels.

Here's what others have to say...

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Like A Porsche Cayenne.

Familiarity:
I've put it through the wringer

Zipp is sort of like Porsche in name brand appeal, both being identified with racing and high performance.

In my opinion, the 404 carbon clincher is similar to the Porsche Cayenne SUV. It looks nice, but it's not really for racing because in my opinion, the wheel feels extremely heavy when trying to accelerate.

I've used my 404s for almost a year. I've done some road races and crits on them, but I've used them mostly for training wheels, because, as stated above, I find them to be heavy and slow when accelerating. They have been durable (after they were trued after the first 300 miles).

I gave them just 2 stars because my impressions of the wheel simply don't match up with all the other reviews and hype, and I think paying 2.7k for a set of spiffy training wheels is just way too much.

Comment on wls100444930's review:

fast, durable, reliable.

Familiarity:
I've put it through the wringer

I have ridden 2 generations of the 404's and can't say enough good about them. It's scary to ride an expensive carbon race worthy wheel set for everyday use but the 404 is a wheel you can do that with. Even at 130lbs I don't worry about crosswinds on these, although I'll admit racing the hillier courses I went to a tubular 303 or enve 3.4 to suit me better. The 404 is still no slouch in the climbs and weight is still about the same as many other wheels out there. Definitely one of my top 3 wheels out. You can contact me here with any specific questions on the 404's or to get any available discounts - kylebrown@backcountry.com

Comment on Kyle Br's review:

New lacing changes everything

Familiarity:
I've put it through the wringer

This is my 4th pair of Zipps and the new hubs have changed everything for the better. Gone is the windup when jumping that you had with the radial drive side spokes of the old, these things are stiff and really feel like they get up and go underneath you. I've pretty much stopped riding my 303's since buying these, they feel more responsive and are definitely faster.

Comment on R Gregory's review:

Versatility in Aero

Familiarity:
I've put it through the wringer

I've been on the full lineup top to bottom from Zipp, as well as my fair share of wheelsets from other brands. Though my weapon of choice for everyday riding is the 303, the 404 is a close second. The 404 however, is the definite first choice for a truly versatile aerodynamic wheel built for pure speed, but agile enough to be a lethal tool all over the road.

Stiff as a good racing wheel should be with a 58 mm deep profile is a very capable aerodynamic profile, while still managing to maintain stability and control in the worst of cross winds. Very robust yet light build from ZIPP, it is phenomenally stable at speed but agile enough for quick intuitive accelerations or to execute emergency maneuvers deep into a corner or switchback.

At slower speeds you can feel some of the aero benefits, but it's no climbers wheel. The true sweet spot on these is zipping (see what I did there?) along flats or +/- 4% gradients. The 404 truly begins to purr at about 20mph, and the the energy savings seem to increase the faster you go. No joke, 18-20mph seems to demand the same energy output as at 23-36mph on the flats. The 404 seems to have been built in with cruise control.

Have any questions, want to talk some more details? Please feel free to shoot me an email at tjackson@backcountry.com.